Lies, Bourbon and Curry Leaves
by jordan-starved
Summary: When Jeremy killed Kol, an entire lineage of vampires died. What happens when someone you love falls dead mid-sentence for no rhyme or reason? Do you wither in grief and hope that someday the hole in your heart will magically disappear? Or do you go looking for answers? DamonXOC, MattXOC friendship, KlausXOC friendship.
1. 1 The Pursuit of Happiness

AN: This set after 4X12; a year or so after Kol's death. I may or may not reference the show after 4X12. Also, I don't own TVD.

CHAPTER 1:IN PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

Miryam Khan sat at the corner table at the Grill and looked towards the bar. He was there. Again. She had been watching him for weeks now. He'd come every day, exactly an hour before noon and stay till the blond barman cut him off. He'd order drinks in pairs, for him and his imaginary best friend. Well, that's what she thought until she _compelled_ the story out of the barman, bar-boy, actually. Apparently, the imaginary-best-friend was once a very-real-best friend who was now a very-dead-best-friend. He was coping. And she got that. She understood death and the grief and the pain that accompanied. And the rage. OH. . The blinding desire to suck every body that comes your way dry, just to make someone feel at least a millionth of that sick sensation that you felt in your undead heart. Drowning in alcohol was the only way to shut off that anger. She knew that only too well. After all, it had barely been a year since Adhiraj.

Adhiraj… Tears that had long dried up threatened to break as she tried in vain to not see their last minutes together at the back of her now clenched shut eyes.

_"Hey MudBags… Race you to the kitchen. Loser makes dinner, right?"_

"You okay, there, Miss?" She opened her eyes to Bar-boy's blue-eyed face.

"Umm… Yeah… I'm good. Caught some dust in my eye…"

"Heyy! I am in-charge of the cleaning in this place. And, believe you me, it's cleaner than a surgeon's scalpel in here." He pretended to pout. How cute.

"Now, how about I bring you a Platter of Happiness and you don't mention the dust to anyone, least of all my grouch of a manager?"

Miryam smiled in spite of herself. He looked about sixteen; not more than eighteen in any case. More than a decade younger than her; and this was when you didn't count her undead-period. Yet, here he was, trying to cheer her up.

"What's a Platter of Happiness?"

"Oh, well… It is five different types of chocolate in one dish… cake, fudge, mousse, cookie dough… ooh and ice cream… And the best part … It's on the house!"

"Sounds delicious…", she replied through a smile. It reached her eyes and threatened to spill the tears building up there again.

Matt set his tray on the counter and sighed. Her 'Happiness' was going to come out of his pocket. But she seemed so miserable. And this crazy ass town could do with less miserable people. So what if he had to lose a couple of bucks from his rent money... right?

As Matt served her, she asked him something that he never expected to be asked.

"So, ummm... Matt, right? You must be knowing a lot of the townsfolk, right? Any chance, you know a 'Kol Mikaelson'?"

Matt felt an abrupt breeze on his right side and a familiar blue eyed smartass vampire sat down opposite the Indian lady.

"I believe we haven't met. I am Damon Salvatore and _you_ can set that down, right here, Jock." Damon smirked at Miryam and Matt.

" Hi... I am Miryam... So, aren't you going to compel him?", she asked, eyes following Matt, who had set the dessert before her and was now walking back to the bar.

"Who? What?... " Damon was momentarily confused, but she helped by letting her bloodlust surface. "Oh, _him?_ He knows all about us. He's our human 'friend', by which I mean the only human we don't feed from.", he offered as she put away her fangs and veins.

"We? So, there are more of you in Mystic Falls?"

"Well, you obviously know the answer to that one. You wanted to know about Baby Klaus..."

"Who?"

" My turn to ask a question. Or two. What do you want with Kol Mikaelson?"

"A drink. Or two. Maybe even dinner. And afters..." It was Miryam's turn to smirk.

"Ha ha. Very funny. Sorry to put a damper on those wild plans, but he's dead."

The effect that those words had on the doe eyed vampire in front of him would have touched even his undead heart, had he been Stefan or Elijah or any of the other _nice_ vampires. The facade she wore fell away , her wide eyes widened even more and the ghost of her smirk was now resting on a zombified shell of her face, which threatened to crumble to dust with each passing second. But Damon, being Damon, said with all the sensitivity of an African elephant," So now that you know your mission was a dead end from the start, I suggest you look for some vampire ass far away from Mystic Falls. Very, very, very far away."

By now the tears were falling freely. All she wanted was answers. They had told her that Kol was an Original. That he couldn't be killed. That if anybody could tell her why her lover just dropped dead one day, it was him. And now he was dead. Like all those others she had found in her pursuit for answers. And now she would never know why.

"Yeah. You're right. I should go.", she said through tears. Miryam got up and walked out the Mystic Grille leaving Damon to attack her Platter of Happiness with much glee.

Matt watched her walk away. She looked in even more terrible shape than before. Damn Damon. That man had quite the capacity to depress people. And he was eating _her _Happiness. One that _he _would be paying for. It was making his blood boil but he wouldn't start a fight with a freak of nature that could kill him with just a blink of the eye. True, he was like a cat with nine lives. Considering the number of times he almost died. Considering the time Katherine compelled him to instigate Tyler, the first time he drowned, the time when Kol crushed his hand, the second time he drowned, the time when Damon tried to drain him, the time at the lake house with that blonde pizza girl, the time in the woods with Jeremy and the newbie-vamps-turned-by-Klaus-for-Jer-to-kill... His luck was going to run out one day. He wasn't going to push it today. So he gritted his teeth and wiped the counter with a new found vengeance.

"Sloppy service, Busboy. You forgot to get me the check."

Matt looked up into the saddest eyes he had ever seen. Miryam smiled the best smile she could smile, at him; and even that was broken in a million different ways.

"Well, the dessert was on the house. And don't know about where you come from, but around here, we don't charge for water."He smiled back at her. She was older, around thirty he guessed. There was a maternal aura about her; that is, if you looked past the extremely sad eyes.

"Well, anyways here's a dollar for your services... And you said your manager's name was... hmmm... Grouch was it?"

"It's Jim. And _this_ is a 500 dollar bill"

"Gah... I'm Indian. I suck at using American money. Keep the change.. Yo Jim! JIII...IIIMMMM!"

Damon appeared beside her.

"I thought you were leaving."

"I am. After I take care of some unfinished business. JIMMY-KIN!"

Jim was approaching. The scowl on his face made him look like a cross between Gollum and the Grinch. Matt was... Well, he was panicking. No one called Jim Jimmy. Especially not Jimmy-kin.

"How can I help you, Miss..."

" You don't need my name. You are going to forget that I was ever here. You are going to be nice to all the kids that work here. You are going to give them a monthly tuition bonus for their school fees. And you are going to treat Matt here like you would your own son." She gave Jim a sweet smile. Jim snapped out of his trance and walked away.

Damon rolled his eyes and Matt just gaped at her. One moment she was breaking apart and the next she was being totally badass. Right now, she was settling back to her earlier depressed self.

Damon opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off."Yeah, yeah, Damon. I'm leaving". she turned to Matt. "Bye, kiddo. Take care of yourself", she said to Matt, making him wonder when was the last time someone realized he was just that, a kid.

And with that, she turned and walked out of the Mystic Grille, away from Mystic Falls, the town that had come to, looking for answers. She got the one answer she didn't want.


	2. 2 Hope

**AN: So, they did get to the cure. Silas did wake up. Katherine did do whatever she did ie. steal the cure. But, Jeremy's still alive. Well, sort of alive, anyway. **

CHAPTER 2 : HOPE

Bonnie was driving around Mystic Falls aimlessly. She still had a couple of hours to kill and she had nothing to do. Of all her friends, she and Caroline were the only ones that had gotten their high school diploma. And she was the only one in college. She got through school only because her dad forced her to and Caroline gave her company. Matt dropped out because rent and food came from the green paper, that one was given for long hours of hard labor at the Grille, not the off- white one with red and gold decorations that one was handed on graduation. Tyler was still on the run from Public Enemy No.1. Stefan had decided that he had finished high school too many times and this time he would be content to drink himself through all the alcohol in Mystic Falls. The fact that the love of his life was "in love" with his brother might have contributed to this decision in a minute way.

Elena had to stay at home and take care of Jeremy, who had lost his mind to the Other Side, when he killed Kol. After they came back from Mission Impossible 5: Cure Hunt, Jeremy had begun to increasingly hang out with his 'friends' from the afterlife. Some days he'd be in the backyard, laughing at something Alaric had said, on others he'd be taking pick up tips from Vicki. Every once in a while he'd be terrorized by Kol. Nowadays he lived in _their_ world alone. He didn't notice when Elena cradled his head and cried, letting tears drip onto his porcelain face; he didn't react when Matt came over to read him some football stats. They couldn't penetrate into his World, the one which Alaric and Jenna still breathed in, the one which Vicki terrorized with her wayward antics, one in which Anna was still weird, still hot and still around. Hell, he even made new friends. There was Aaron the Teen Wolf, Rachel the Blonde Witch and someone called Fluffy, who Bonnie hoped wasn't an actual supernatural creature. And then, there was Kol. _Period._

April was graduating today. In fact, that's the reason Bonnie had driven down from Duke in the first place. April had called her last Saturday and asked if she'd come to her graduation. Bonnie had agreed immediately. April didn't have any living family left. She had still been a strong girl when her dad died. But, now, she was as broken as the rest of them. The undoing of her soul happened parallel to the undoing of Jeremy's mind. They had dated briefly, and in that brief a time they had shared a love that only two teenagers, who had braved far worse things than what their age prepared them for, could share. April had stood by Jeremy and watched him disintegrate. Her heart had been getting shredded bit by bit every day, till Elena intervened and told her to take a break. April screamed and cried and screamed some more and then she stopped. Talking, that is. And smiling. And she turned to the stoner pit and its extremely helpful pitmen to keep her sanity. Matt laughed at the irony of it, before he pulled her away from the drugs and enlisted Bonnie in the Stop April From Destroying Herself Cause. That's when she and April had grown close. It was like having a troubled younger sister and a caring but annoying older brother. And they did good, too, it seemed. April was graduating today, wasn't she?

Bonnie suddenly realized that she wasn't driving anymore. She looked outside and found herself at the cemetery. She sat in the comfort of her Prius, took a deep breath and decided to go in. She entered the grim gardens and almost immediately saw Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert's headstone. She said a silent hello to them and trudged past Jenna and John. She walked and walked, past the first Mayor Lockwood, loving husband and father, and the second Mayor Lockwood, loving wife and mother, past Victoria Donovan, daughter and sister. Someone, most likely Jeremy, had etched the words "sexy waitress and soul mate" below her birth date. She walked past Coach Tanner and resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him. She walked and she walked, till she reached her Grams, where she stopped for a moment." Hey, Grams! How're you?", she said, out loud. Bonnie gave Grams a brief report about her well being and then said, " I wish I could stay longer, but, today I gotta go see him, and I don't have much time." She walked along and came to a lone gravestone surrounded by weeds. She used her _natural _magic to clear the wild growth and conjure a white lily.

" Hey, Mr. Saltzmann." She fought back tears as she looked down at his name. The man who was always there. The father she never had. The mentor who pushed her to practice magic as much as Grams, while making her study for her History final. The only person, apart from Grams and Matt, that did not take her for granted. "I did it. I finished high school, got into college and stayed in, too. For a while I thought I was going to quit. But, I didn't. I did it. I kept my word." _But you didn't. You said you would be there at graduation. You weren't. You said you'd help me pick a college. You didn't. You said you'd visit every weekend. I miss you. Damon the Dick does too. But I miss you more._

A beep from her cellphone brought Bonnie back to reality. It was a text from Matt; he was asking if she needed a ride or anything. She texted him back that she was on her way and started walking back the way she came. A sound to her left made her glance towards Logan Fell's grave. A pretty Indian-looking girl was sitting on Logan's headstone. She seemed to be crying. 'That's funny', Bonnie thought. _Maybe Logan wasn't as bad as Jenna made him out to be. I mean there was a girl weeping at his grave._

Bonnie was about to turn back when she saw the girl take off her ring. It took about three full seconds for Miryam to start screaming as she burnt. It took three more for Bonnie to realize what was going on. Her hero complex took over and she pulled every bit of magic she could to save that stupid, stupid vampire.

Stefan heard her the moment she walked into the Salvatore Mansion. Caroline Forbes was wearing her I-am-going-to-lecture-Stefan look. And she was justified in wearing it because it was 10 in the morning and Stefan had already gone through a bottle and a half of scotch. Which made Stefan extra broody and snappy. He already had a Leave-me-alone-Caroline speech composed when she reached his room. They both simultaneously opened their mouths and then simultaneously closed their mouths when the identical cow's hoof bracelet they both wore heated up real quick and burnt their wrists. Somewhere, Bonnie was using too much _Expression _and was going to either implode or explode depending on the percentage of water in her orange juice that morning. Stefan and Caroline rushed out.

"We need a map", Caroline cried, mentally cursing herself for not having a map on her person at all times. How many times had they needed to use an emergency locator spell? A million?

Stefan supersped to a newsstand and compelled a city map from the keeper. He removed his bracelet and kept it at the centre of the map. A single spot on the map burned up.

"The cemetery!", he cried to Caroline and they both sped away.

The cemetery was never Damon's favorite place. When they were little, he and Stefan used to run past the cemetery holding their breath while walking back from school. Something about spirits entering your body through your nose and possessing you. He grew out of those silly superstitions but an irrational fear was firmly implanted in his being. He crouched beside Miryam's unconscious body, while Stefan and Caroline helped revive Bonnie. "I knew she was going to be trouble", he said with a grimace.

"You know who that is?", Stefan queried. Damon gave a quick exaggerated summary of his encounter at the Grille the previous morning. "She's up to no good. I can feel it. I mean, she can't be _not a villain_ if she was friends with Baby Klaus."

" She tried to kill herself ." Everyone turned to look at Bonnie. "So, I'm kinda sure she didn't mean any harm."

The silence was broken by Bonnie's phone, the second time that day. "Okay, so, that was Matt. Wondering where I am. April's graduation ceremony starts in about thirty minutes and she's gonna be really mad if I don't get there in time to listen to her Valedictorians' speech", she said, getting out of Stefan's embrace. Caroline and Stefan immediately started talking simultaneously. They wanted her to go home and rest, April would understand, then Stefan wanted to drive her home and then Caroline wanted to drive her home too, then she said no and then they got into a three sided argument till Damon just lost it.

"SHUT . UP." he said. Everyone did. " Go to the graduation. It's not like she is going to fight demons there. She can listen to April's speech and sleep through the rest of it. That way everybody wins."

Stefan shrugged. Caroline released Bonnie from her hug. As the trio started towards Bonnie's car, they started arguing again about something.

Damon watched Stefan and Caroline fuss over Bonnie. He looked at the girl lying at his feet. Her Day-Walker ring was lying on the tombstone, right on top of the 'E' in Fell. He put it on her left thumb; he had noticed at their first meeting that that's how she wore it, and lifted her up. The news of Kol's death had driven her to suicide. That twisted, Original pain in the ass, borderline maniacal, Elijah-faced Neanderthal had made someone feel so much for him. As he sped with her towards his house, he smiled a sunlit smile, one that didn't make his face hurt. _There was hope for Damon Salvatore afterall._

**Credits: "Public Enemy No.1" - ripped from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.**

**AN: Okay, so the cemetery seemed the perfect place for vampire suicide. But I couldn't resist listing out all the inhabitants. Cliché, huh? Oh, and yes. I 3 Bonaric. Because Bonnie needed a crazy BAMF for a pseudo-daddy! Also, did I rant too much in the beginning? This is kind of my first fanfic and I'd really appreciate some tips on improving my writing. Do read and review. Cheers! **


	3. Sunburn

**AN: Sorry for the laaaaaaaaaaaaaaate update. Was kinda busy with keeping away from protesters on my streetSri Lanka Problems. Also. Happy Belated Easter! Anyhoo, here's a not so very impactful chapter..**

**CHAPTER 3: SUNBURN**

Matt was on vampire sitting duty and he wasn't really doing a good job. He was sprawled on the floor of one of the seven bedrooms in Hotel Salvatore, fast asleep, mouth wide open, drooling a puddle the size of a small kiddie-pool on Damon's oh-so-fancy Arabian carpet. Well, you couldn't really blame him. The last week had been crazy. The vampire he was "watching" had tried to commit suicide, but was rescued by Bonnie with the help of dark magic, which took its toll on Bonnie, as was evident from the copious amount of blood that bled from her nostrils right after April's graduation speech and she still wasn't completely fit. So, Matt, Caroline and Stefan had built a sort of routine, watching said vampire and witch, in turns. This, along with his work schedule made for a hectic day. Also, eighteen year old boys do love their beauty sleep. Anytime, anywhere. Which is why, when Caroline came to take over her shift from him, instead of waking him up and sending him on his way, she put a pillow under his head and a blanket over him and let him be. She then proceeded to put the colorful cushions she had brought along on the couch and to change the boring white table cloth on the side table to something much more jazzy. This place still looked like it was stuck in 1864 and Caroline believed that a little more color could do wonders for the mood in here. Also, since Carol Lockwood's death last New Year's, she was agonizingly aware of the fact that the Salvatore Mansion was probably the only thing that would be constant for the rest of her eternal life. _Might as well make it more like home_, she mused. She called it Mission Make-the -Salvatore-Place-a-little-less-broody. Stefan called it Mission Death-by-Damon and Bonnie called it 'The Caroline-isation' of the Salvatore House. Damon was, as of now, unaware of the rainbow hues sneaking into his olive toned living room or the painfully white bathrooms. As Caroline replaced the dried flowers from the day before with fresh pink carnations, she heard movement behind her.

"Up already? I thought you were going to sleep through Stefan's shift as well", she said arranging the flowers in the vase. One particular petal was adamantly sticking out at an odd angle and Caroline was trying her best to wedge it back in place without crushing the flower completely. "Your curtains are much too dull. You should get them to match your cushions", a female voice said. Caroline turned so fast she gave herself whiplash and healed instantaneously. " Oh, you're up... We've been waiting for almost a week now..." Caroline drawled as Miryam walked to the window and drew the curtains to let some sun in. Suddenly, Matt started to scream and thrash. Caroline zipped to him and started going hysterical herself at what she was seeing. The skin on Matt's face and arms was smoking and peeling off. He seemed to be spontaneously combusting. Miryam tried to blur to the teenagers to help but her head had begun to spin and she just sat down in front of the window. Matt's burns were worsening by the second and Caroline was screaming for Stefan and Damon and Bonnie and Klaus and just about every supernatural entity she knew.

Miryam felt someone blur behind her and draw the curtains shut. She was blacking out but there was no pain, no feeling as such. She could hear someone say that the burns weren't worsening anymore and then she felt a pair of muscled arms lift her bridal style and then there were a couple of shocked gasps and maybe a muffled scream before she surrendered to the darkness completely.

* * *

It was night when Miryam woke again. A brown haired teenager was sitting on a wingback to her right and reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Seriously, did they have any adults in this town who were not blue-eyed dicks? The boy had propped his legs up on the bed and he had _not_ removed his boots.

"Shoes off, hero", she admonished in a mocking manner. Speaking made her face feel weird, like she was trying to talk through a face pack. The boy jumped mildly and smiled back at her.

"Hi. I'm Stefan. Stefan Salvatore", he ventured shyly.

"No relation to Damon Salvatore I hope..."

"Blood brother, actually. Unfortunate, but true."

They both smiled at each other. "Oh, well... I'm Miryam. Now, I'd like to know why I'm not dead yet. Because I distinctly remember taking off my ring and burning. There is also a fleeting memory of discussing curtain colors for my quarters in Heaven with a blonde angel... but, I'm alive.. or whatever... So, help a brother out?", she said the last part in a mock baritone with a gangster-ish impression, that made Stefan actually laugh out loud.

He offered her some blood, which she gladly accepted and then, he told her everything that he knew. She freaked out mildly when she realized that she had been unconscious for a week in a stranger's house. But, no one had tried to get rid of her; in fact they had even prevented _her_ from getting rid of her. So far, so good. She watched the boy in front of her. Stefan was fidgeting with the cover of his book: he was scratching out Ron's face from the cover.

"What? You don't like Weasely? Too spotty for you?", she asked him.

"Nah... I'm Team Dramione...", Stefan said, a smile threatening to break his face again.

"So what? You're going to scratch him out and replace him with Malfoy?", she said, gesturing towards his furiously working fingers.

Stefan was actually thinking whether he should tell her about this morning's episode with Matt. He had a theory about the Saturday-Special-Matt-Fry this morning and he didn't like it one bit. He looked up to see a pair of dark eyes studying him keenly. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a buzz from his cellphone. It was a text from Bonnie. _Figured out Matt mystery. Comin 2 ur place in 10 with C and M._ Stefan groaned inwardly. Why did they have to meet here? Did they forget they had an unknown vampire with, surprise-surprise, vampire hearing in the house?

He was about mass text everyone to meet at Elena's place when he heard the front door open and close and smelt Bonnie and Caroline. _Oh. Whatever. Maybe she's old and hard of hearing._

"Girlfriendsssss?", Miryam asked him, laying special emphasis on the 'ssssss'. _Or not. _Stefan looked at her, exhaled like a Chinese teapot letting out steam and said," Something happened this morning, so we're having a Cub Scouts meeting. You could join us if you feel up to it."

"Sure.", she said. There was a sound of a glass breaking and one of the girls gasping and Damon hollering, " Go Away, Barbie. This is my house and we're not an effing Conference Hall for rent. I don't care about Captain Subasa, he can spontaneously combust or grow a tail or two tongues or maybe even a brain. I'm not having any of you here!"

Miryam raised her eyes at Stefan, who had blurred to the door at the beginning of the commotion but stopped when he realized it was just another episode of the Forbes vs. Salvatore Show.

"It's just Damon being...Damon and Caroline being traumatized. It is quite the comedy, though. You should watch it.", Stefan said as the uproar downstairs grew louder. Caroline had begun to alphabetically list out reasons why the Salvatore living room was best for their meetings and Damon was breaking something that sounded like wood. Well, as long as it didn't sound like bones.

"Yeah. I can't wait to.", she grinned jumping out of bed. As she did that, she felt something she hadn't felt in eighty years. _Head rush._ She caught the bedpost to steady herself as she struggled to get her vision back. Stefan was next to her in a millionth of a second. "You okay? You can stay here if you need to...", he said, concern evident in his voice. The darkness in front of her eyes lifted a few moments later, and she stood up slowly." No, no. I'm good to go.", she said and walked to the door.

**AN:So? Like it? Love it? Hate it? Do review. ALso, I needed a small favor. Could anyone tell me what happened to Alaric's Magic ring? I can't seem to remember for the life of me and need for it to make an appearance later. Thanks in advance.**


	4. How to Save a Life

**AN: This one is shorter. have fun reading. TVD and characters belong to You-Know-Who, but just to be clear, NOT me!**

CHAPTER 4:HOW TO SAVE A LIFE

Caroline and Damon were in opposite corners of the room, glaring at each other. Matt and Stefan were on the single seaters while Bonnie and Miryam took up the couch. Matt looked a little pale but otherwise he was fine. Elena was absent because Jeremy was still awake, and she couldn't leave him alone. Everyone had settled with drinks and introduced themselves to Miryam, who had squealed and called Caroline, "Angel!" when she saw her. Then, there ensued the explanation for the exclamation, sharing of hobbies and personal interests punctuated by squeals of delight whenever something matched. Damon cleared his throat hard enough to send it sailing out his mouth to the other end of the room to get their attention. Caroline and Damon were now back to their glaring game from their respective corners. Once it was quiet again, Bonnie started talking, looking all Kill Bill Vol.3.

"So, we all know what happened to Matt righ-"

"Uh, I don't", Miryam interrupted. Bonnie gave Stefan a hard look and continued," Well, short story shorter, he kinda had a severe sun allergy, much like the one _your kind_ suffers from."

"So, I'm a vampire, now? But, I don't remember almost dying recently...", Matt said, a puzzled expression on his face, which earned him a scoff from Damon.

Bonnie rolled her big green eyes and said, "No, Matt you are not a vampire-" "Yet", Damon finished for her. Bonnie was tired of Damon, starting from the way he antagonized Caroline when they came, to the smartass-ed-ness he was dripping all over the place, to the insanely clear blue eyes that were irritating the life out of her right now. So, she let out a loud sigh and waved her hand at him. But, instead of making him go flying through the air, the table he was leaning on burst into flames. _Damn. Not the effect I was looking to create, but this will do just fine too. _

"Bonnie!" She heard several voices shout. She calmed down and the small fire died down. " Well, I guess _someone_ won't be interrupting _someone_ now", Damon observed as he picked himself up from the floor near Stefan's foot.

"So, again, as I was saying I think Matt got sizzled this morning because I accidentally drew from his of his life force when I saved your life the other day", she said to Miryam.

"Wait... So why did he burn? Did your juju mess with his metabolism or something? I mean, is he going to keep the pyro-techniques going periodically or what? ", Miryam asked, fighting a rising surge of panic and guilt.

" Well, no. Only things that happen to you will happen to them", Bonnie replied, incredulously. _Come, on. The only half way decent adult in five counties and she's that dumb? _

"But, he burnt!", Miryam cried, in desperation, turning her wide eyes to Bonnie and Stefan and Caroline. " And I didn't!"

"Hey... Maybe you don't remember but you did burn... I was there. Your skin was peeling off...", Stefan said.

"I remember waking up. I remember Caroline fixing pink carnations in the bedroom. I remember there being a commotion. I remember trying to help but being too weak to. What I don't remember is the pain!" Miryam was hysterical now. "Are you suggesting selective amnesia?" she cried at Stefan. The silence in the room was deafening.

"Hold it! What was that about pink carnations, again?", Damon queried. Everybody ignored him.

"Well, Bonnie. I am going to prove you wrong." So, saying Miryam grabbed the brooch Caroline was wearing and stuck the pin in her finger tip.

"Aaaaargh! What the hell?", Matt screamed. His finger was bleeding. Stefan rushed to Miryam and wrestled the brooch from her while Caroline offered Matt her wrist. "No, thanks. I think a band-aid would do the trick this time", Matt grumbled, glaring at Miryam as Caroline wrapped his finger in Stefan's handkerchief.

"Oh. My. God." Miryam looked shocked. _Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!_

"Yeah. This is where normal people would usually say 'Told you so', but as obvious, Bonnie is anything but normal...", Damon supplied.

Miryam sat on the sofa Stefan had just vacated. She was staring at the blank space in front of her eyes. " You okay?", Stefan asked her gently.

Damon decided he had been silent for way too long. "Yes, Stefan, she tried to kill herself because, duh", he did a Damon-dance with his eyebrows," now she's stuck in our world because Glenda the Good Witch couldn't keep her nose out of other people's business. And she has to put up with you lot. So, yes, Stefan. I think she's just two sips short of peachy."

"I didn't feel that." Everyone turned to look at Miryam. "I'm sorry, what?", Damon asked.

"I. Didn't. Feel. That." She reiterated slower and louder, this time." The pin prick. I didn't feel that."

"Maybe, it healed before you realized...", Caroline ventured. Even as she said it, she felt foolish. Each and every morning, she banged her little toe on her bathroom door and even after she turned, it hurt at least till she reached her car. And she didn't even draw blood.

"Yeah", Damon agreed. "Maybe we should punch you or stick a knife in you." He gave Matt a smirk.

Miryam looked at her toes, tears of extreme emotion swirling in her eyes. Was it possible? Could it be... "CIPA", she whispered.

"What's a seepa?", a voice to her left asked.

Miryam looked up."CIPA. C-I-P-A. I had it when I was human. Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis , in which the patient cannot feel pain or extreme temperatures."

"Oh. My. God." Caroline's voice became shriller with each syllable. " Does that mean what I think it means?", she said at two decibels short of ultrasonic.

Stefan looked at Bonnie. His eyes were full of hope. Of getting the girl he loved back. Fixing her. Bonnie did it once. She could do it again. He turned to face Caroline, but, he couldn't push words out of his mouth. So, his brother did it for him.

"Yes, Barbie. I believe the Wicked Witch of the West just cured vampirism."

"That is one whole truckload of BS." Everyone turned to look at the ex-quarterback." If she is not a vampire anymore, how did she heal? After the burn session this morning? After the Sleeping Beauty enactment right now?"

Damon was amazed. _Since when do embedded jock stereotypes have, like, brains?_

"He's right. She could hear and sense the girls when they came. That's supernatural hearing", Stefan added.

"But, Stefan", Caroline pleaded," Can you not hear her heart?" With a start, the Salvatore brothers realized that there indeed were three heartbeats, instead of two.

"Plus, when I got out of bed to come down, I had extreme head rush. I also think I've lost my super speed", Miryam said.

" Great. So, now you are a vampire with all the liabilities and none of the benefits. It's like being Superman except you can't fly or stop trains with your finger but kryptonite can still hurt you bad", Matt said. Miryam shrugged and Stefan decided to order Chinese for himself, Matt, Bonnie and whoever else was interested in Mandarin Duck along with their cup of blood. Which prompted another argument between Caroline and Damon on the difference between wantons and dumplings.

Unbeknownst to the gang of supernaturals (and Matt), a blonde with a lilting English accent was listening to every word of their discussion. She turned away from the Salvatore house and whipped out her cellphone as Damon and Caroline began arguing about the violet hydrangeas that Damon finally noticed in the living room. The person she called answered on the fourth ring.

"Hello, Nik. You will not believe what I have to tell you..."

**AN: I got the CIPA idea after I read an article in a really old Reader's Digest edition. Do tell me what you think about it. Cheers!**


	5. Musings of a Sleepy Wolf

**AN: Sorry for the loooooooong delay in updating. Life happened and I had to move away from my muse(s) not to mention TVD ended. But hey, I'm back now..**

CHAPTER 5: MUSINGS OF A SLEEPY WOLF

It was a warm and sleepy afternoon. A lazy fly tried to buzz over the fruit basket in the kitchen island. The heat was smothering. Soon, the fly gave up on trying to hover and settled on top of one of the oranges. The silence in the mansion was peacefully sad. For more than a year now, there was no sound in the afternoons, no dark haired boys twiddling with sound system , no blonde girls trashing said sound system because of said boys' choice in music, no ensuing quarrels, no sound of breaking furniture and no empty threats of getting daggered from the grown-ups. The amount of siesta-time drama had reduced to a negative five thousand. It was at times like this that the resident evil mastermind of Mystic Falls missed his baby brother.

After their mother tried to kill them yet again, Kol had disappeared for a couple of months. He laid low and no amount of reassurance from Elijah and no amount of cajoling and begging from Rebekah could bring him out of hiding. Of all the people Kol presented with his don't-care attitude, Klaus and Elijah were the only ones who knew that he was still the nineteen year old boy who cut off the sleeves from all his sister's dresses to annoy her, who loved almond cake and goat's milk and whose eyes lit up whenever their mother decided to take them to the market because there was a chance that a certain tiger-tooth vendor with fiery red hair and bottomless black eyes and delicate pink lips might smile at him. So, the scared little boy had run away from his witch mother that tried to kill him.

He had called Rebekah after three months from Afghanistan. Rebekah told him to come home. She also asked for some original Afghan sweaters and some silver jewellery. He hung up on her.

A few days later he had called Elijah for his nine hundred and sixty sixth birthday from Japan. Elijah had invited him to spend summer with him in his chateau in the south of France. Kol had said that he was occupied with some Asian royalty at the moment but would love to join him towards the end of June. It was a done deal and the only reason Elijah didn't call Rebekah to gloat was that he was scared he would actually squeal like his sixteen year old sister would have if she were in his shoes.

But that was before last summer. Before yet another failed attempt on his life and the first successful one on Elena's. Before the hybrid massacre. Before the mad rush for The Cure and his brother's irrational fear fuelled madness and eventual death. Klaus shifted uneasily in his bed. The air conditioning was acting up. Again. He was going to have to do something about the AC mechanic. He took care to never think about the night Kol died, but it was difficult considering he had had a front seat ticket to that debacle. Also, remembering the unpleasant details made his blood boil and his fingers tingled to close around the tender throat of the Hunter's sister. But he couldn't let himself go there because they had declared a truce. That, and the "Things-that-Klaus-has-done-that-Caroline-will-nev er-forgive" list was already way too long for his liking. Besides, the doppelganger already had enough punishment as it is, given her brother's condition. So Klaus contented himself with a cup of bloodied and iced lemonade. _Brother for brother, _he mused staring at the angels he had painstakingly painted on his ceiling, sleep pulling at his eyelids like opposite poles of two magnets.

It was night when he was jolted awake by his cellphone ringing. He cursed sleepily when he accidentally answered the call instead of ignoring it as he originally intended to. _Damn touch phones._ He was in no mood to talk to anyone, least of all Rebekah. All he wanted to do was go back to his dreams where Klaroline was actually a possibility. _Klaroline? Stefan needed a major dose of vervaining for inventing that word. Well, it was probably invented by Damon. And that one needed more than just vervaining._

"Nik!", his phone issued a high pitched yelp. " Are you listening to me or not?"

Klaus shook the remnants of sleep from his eyes and tried to concentrate on his annoying little sister. Sixteen was not a nice age to be stuck at for eternity. Especially with a murderous hybrid for a brother.

"No. I wasn't listening." he snapped. " I don't intend to either. If you've maxed out your credit cards again, its Elijah's turn to pay for you this month. I honestly don't understand this whole live-like-a-human nonsense. I mean you won't compel the shopkeepers or the bar tender but compelling yourself good grades is okay? How is tha..."

"Bonnie cured a vampire", Rebekah cut his tirade.

"And I'm interested because...", he trailed. Didn't she get it? Truce implied Doppelganger not equal to Eternal Blood-bag. It was quite algebraic, really, but math had never been Bekah's strong points.

"You are interested because I want it. I really want to be human again, and grow old, may be bed Matt without accidentally eating him, and fall in love with him and hold his hand without having to concentrate on not crushing his bones and... I want to feel alive again, Nik. Please", Rebekah ranted breathlessly.

"If all you want is Matt, you could turn him you know. It would last longer and saves us the trouble of talking to Bonnie B", he said. Oh, and when he said 'talking', he meant begging/whimpering. Bitch Witch could pack a mean one when she wanted to, truce or no truce.

"Well, he doesn't want that. So.", Rebekah paused. Klaus didn't say anything. "Nik, pleeeease. Consider this a monumental birthday present to me. Compensation for all those birthdays that you missed... Please..."

An unnaturally vivid memory of a ten year old Rebekah smiling and proudly laughing over "the best dandelion necklace in ten villages" crafted by and gifted to her by her favorite brother clouded his vision.

"Fine. I'll see what I can do."Klaus ended the call before his sister could say anything. This was going to be one of those decisions that he would regret later. But, it was the least she deserved for sticking with a dick like him for so long.


End file.
